A/N: Not too excited about this, but the end of MA is near. This chapter isn't my best, per say. It was sitting in Docs for over two months and decided to publish it. I'm going to work on TIVA challenges this week. Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas to everyone.

"Tony!" She gasped, after a steel beam fell down from the warehouse rafters. The sudden smell of smoke made her break from her frozen place and into warrior mode. "Where are you?"

There was no answer. The sounds of creaking metal and smoke blocked her vision. Then, the cries of a little girl filled the expanse. Her heart jumping right out of her chest, the panging in her head became all too real.

The low and slow sound of beeping roused her out of her head and into her reality with a loud and fast alarm clock beside her bed. She sat straight and went directly to the bathroom sink. It had been two full days since Tali arrived in America. All she could think about was her. Her face. Her smile. Her father.

Then with a splash of ice cold water to her face and neck, she plunged right in. Right into the beginning.

"Are you ready?" An older woman said on the other line while Ziva picked her shirt for the day.

"For what exactly?" Ziva knew what she was ready for. She was finally getting to see her baby without fear and without threat. She was ready and willing to get accepted (or rejected, even if that is highly unlikely) by the man she ran away from three years ago.

The woman on the other side of the phone conversation chuckled then sighed to pause, "to live?"

Am I ready to live? To really begin living.

Two paper stars hang from the very top of the blanket fort. They are made of white copy paper, stolen from the little girl's father's printer. She put her down comforter in the middle of the floor, which too is plain white along with two purple, pink, and blue quilts perched hanging from an unplugged floor lamp and two chairs at the opening.

The room is completely silent when he walks in, looking for his tape dispenser he had lent her for a world history poster assignment last week. His eyes rumple up as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. Once finding his tape and Sharpie on her nightstand, he walks around the fort for a moment to scan the architectural creativity; and he is impressed.

Ziva catches her husband with at least four pillows in his arms on his way to Tali's room.

"Don't ask." He muttered frozen in place.

Shaking her head, she takes a pillow away from him and nudges him to continue walking.

"I wanted to do this yesterday," there is a hint of eager in her voice as she climbs underneath the blankets.

"You too?" He sounds surprised.

Looking up at him with those big beautiful brown eyes, she questions him, "Tony, you've known me how long?" She chuckles, "Oh, come on."

He grins and hands Ziva the pillows, she takes them and arranges them on the floor. Tony slides in and sighs in contentment. "Ah, this is nice. I like the 'décor'; very minimalist."

"Hm. I wonder what Tali would do if she caught us in her fort. She is-Tony?" The sound of paper turning and Tony's small grunts disrupt her. She looks over and sees a journal under his hand. "What is this?"

He glances at her and back to the book then explains, "She writes…a lot."

Like a concerned mother, "about?"

He hesitates, "uh, her dog, school, her friends…us."

Her eyebrows shoot up and she flips herself onto her back. "Interesting." He was about to speak again when she touches him on the cheek, "Tony, I don't think we should be snooping around. I mean it's her diary."

His lips purse then relax, "She won't know. She doesn't get back until tomorrow evening from that church thingy." The look on her face make it quite clear to him that he should shut the journal while he still has his hands. "I suppose you're right."

After grabbing a bowl of popcorn and his portable DVD player and bringing it into the fort, she asks the question he's been dying to hear. "Uh, Tony?"

"Zee-Vah." He loves saying her name like that. He cleans the DVD disk on his shirt then puts in into the machine.

"From the little you read in her journal, uh, what did she say?"

"Oh. Easy. She said that we are the worst people ever to inhabit planet Earth. And she plans to move away from us and join a tribe in South Dakota." He said in a straight face then busted into laughter at the look of complete shock on Ziva's face. It's the look a little kid makes when an animal is trying to cross the road in the midst of traffic.

With a sudden relief, she punched him in the arm, to which he yelped. "Not funny! You had me worried. I'm serious."

After rubbing his arm, he rolled his eyes. "We're loud."

"What?" Then a sudden knowledge cam over her along with Tony's suggestive eyes. "Ohhhhh."

"Yeah. But don't worry. She also things we're weird."

"Weird? How?"

He shrugged, "Not sure. But I think she compares us to her friends' parents. So..."

The opening movie credits ended and Ziva nudged closer to Tony. "I thought we were doing a pretty normal job at parenting."

"Normal is boring."

An hour later, Tony paused the movie. "Bathroom break!"

"I'll get wine!" She called on her way to the kitchen. On the way back she glanced at one particular family photo framed, sitting on a shelf by some very average books. The photo was taken from Tony's phone the day after they reunited at the airport in Tel-Aviv. She remembers how tense things were, but also how happiness found her again.

She smiled not only because the nightmare was over, but it had been replaced with a tangible dream.

"I wish we could stay like this forever." Tony said softly in her ear as the movie ended with the sound of cinematic music drowning the room.

"We can." Her voice like a whisper; he could tell she was fighting to stay awake.

He scooped her in his arms and rested his head on hers. "I think Tali would kick us out if we tried. We already took her fort."

She opened her eyes to the sound of panting, "I think the dog is judging us."

Tony sighed, noticing the large figure of a medium-haired Zara"Yeah. But who is she gonna tell?"

"Tali." Zara tells her everything.

He thought for a moment, "Ziva, um, maybe we should-"

"Agreed." Ziva already made her way out with a pillow under her arm, looking at Tony. "Our bed is much more suitable anyways."

Ziva already made her way into their bedroom when he made his way into the hallway. He wondered exactly what she meant by suitable. But, the dog looking up at him with those judgmental big brown eyes, made him adjust himself.

Behave yourself, DiNozzo.